


Ultradimension Neptunia: Big Nep and Smolgear

by CobaltGemini



Category: Hyperdimension Neptunia
Genre: Cobalt Gemini, Family, Gen, Humor, Smolgear, Ultradimension
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-24
Updated: 2020-08-24
Packaged: 2021-03-06 19:35:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 12,567
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26124337
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CobaltGemini/pseuds/CobaltGemini
Summary: After so many adventures to other worlds, Big Neptune, along with Uzume, decides to head back home to the Ultra Dimension to visit her family. Once she gets there, she is greeted with a surprise!(Co-written by me and my friend, Savannah)
Comments: 1
Kudos: 4





	1. Returning Home

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  **Quick Author's Note:** This story is being co-written by me, Cobalt Gemini, and my friend, Savannah. I do several other stories, but I primarily do vector art on DeviantArt (under the name "Cobalt-Gemini"), and Savannah streams occasionally on Twitch (under the "handihuntress"). For the sake of the story, we'll go by our real names, I am Jacob, and my co-writer is Savannah.  
>  _Here's a link to my (Jacob's) DeviantArt:_ [Cobalt-Gemini](https://www.deviantart.com/cobalt-gemini)  
>  _Here's a link to Savannah's Twitch:_ [handihuntress](https://www.twitch.tv/handihuntress)
> 
> Also, this story idea is based on a piece of fanart I found, and I'd like to give credit where credit is due. It was hard to find the source piece, but I believe it is this: "たかよみ" by "黒ねぷ姉妹" on pixiv.net, which, according to Google Translate, means "Black Nep Sisters" by "Takayomi" (please correct me if I'm wrong).  
>  _Here's a link to this image:_ [Link](https://www.pixiv.net/en/artworks/49471867)
> 
> And finally, here's something funny... whenever the two of us get together to write this, we call it "The Neppening"!
> 
> With all that said, we hope you enjoy!

_Welcome to the world of Gamindustri, residing in the Hyperdimension. There are many dimensions like ours, though ours happens to have been connected to several others, such as the Ultradimension!_

_Anyways, Gamindustri is split up into four lands, each led by a Goddess, known as CPU (that stands for Console Patron Unit). Right now, you are in Planeptune, led by me, Purple Heart. But you can call me Neptune, the Protagonist of Protagonists!_

_It’s so awesome to have you listen to my story! I hope you-_ “-HEY! Give my microphone back! I was using it!”

“Neptune, this isn’t even on,” replied Neptune’s little sister, Nepgear, “are you breaking the fourth wall again?”

“The fourth wall doesn’t exist when I’m talking. We’ve been over this,” Neptune told her.

“Gamindustri doesn’t revolve around you. Besides, this story isn’t about you.”

“Well, I’m kind of the focus of the story, right...?”

“What is this story even about?” Nepgear asked.

Neptune was about to answer, raising her finger like some thoughtful pose, but then she just got a blank look on her face. “Actually, I don’t know. I can’t read the author’s mind.”

 _“Minds._ There’s two of them.”

“Oh yeah! That’s right!”

“Anyways, our guests are coming soon,” Nepgear told her. “You should get ready.”

“Fine…” Neptune grumped, getting up and walking out to prepare for her guests.

Neptune hummed along as she began gathering food for soon-arriving guests. We should probably describe what she looks like. She is a short, petite girl with short, light purple hair and purple eyes. In her hair, she has two hairpins in the shape of a game controller’s D-pad, one on each side of her head, and a white choker around her neck. She has a white and purple parka-hoodie with plug-shaped hoodie strings, and the Planeptune N on the zipper, as well as white and blue striped thigh-high socks and purple and blue shoes.

Nepgear started to clear some space in the main room. As the sister to Purple Heart, she is a CPU Candidate, the next generation CPUs, and potential successors. Despite being the younger of the two sisters, she is taller than Neptune (and also acts more mature). She is very similar to Neptune in looks and style, though her hair is long and she has only one D-pad hairclip (still has her own similar choker, though). She wears a white and purple sailor-style dress with a yellow ribbon held together by a band with the same Planeptune N, and white and pink striped thigh-high socks with medium-sized boots matching her dress’s style.

As Neptune came in with the food (including lots of pudding, her favorite food), their Oracle (the goddess’s right-hand) Histoire entered. “I hope everything is going as planned?”

“Everything is going awesome, so far!” Neptune exclaimed.

“And I hope you’ve completed your work beforehand?”

“She was breaking the fourth wall with a microphone,” Nepgear explained.

Neptune groaned. “Do you really have to be such a tattletale, Nepgear? Jeez.”

Histoire is a tome, which recorded the history of Gamindustri. She was essentially a tiny, fairy-like girl sitting on a book, the very tome she was. She had blond hair styled into two pigtails, with a purple and white headdress and a white hat with the Planeptune N on it. She wears a purple open-sleeve dress line in gold-designs, and with a white folded-down collar and teal tie. She also has white thigh-high socks and white shoes with green circles on them.

“Neptune, you know that as a goddess-” Histoire started.

“Yeah, yeah, I know. She has duties to her people and stuff. But everything is fine. And I just wanna play,” Neptune interjected.

“No, everything is not fine! You have to keep your Shares up, or you will lose your powers!”

“Awe, come on, don’t be such a party pooper!”

“Neptun-”

“You’re not my mother, Histoire!” Neptune interrupted, right as the doorbell rang.

“Oh, they’re here!” Nepgear announced, as she went to answer the door. “Hello! Goodness, you’re early!”

In the elevator leading to the goddess’s home were three people (well two people and a ...fish person.) The first was Neptune, or rather, an older Neptune from another dimension. With her was Uzume (a.k.a. Orange Heart), one of the previous goddesses of Planeptune, and her partner Umio.

“Hey there, Nepgear!” The second Neptune greeted. Usually referred to as “Big Nep”, she was not a goddess like her counterpart. Though, she was grown-up, and pretty well-developed. She, of course, looked like an adult version of the smaller Neptune, though her hair is much longer, and she wore more black instead of white. Her two D-pad clips and choker were black, her parka, while very similar to smaller Nep’s, was black and purple. She didn’t have thigh-high socks, and she wore black and purple shoes. She also had a gun-holster on her left thigh.

“Big Nep! It’s so good to see you again!” Small Nep greeted in return.

“Sup’ Nepsy! Sup’ Gearsy!” Uzume jumped in. She has red hair with pigtails tied at the bottom by knots, and red-orange eyes. In her hair were two black clasps. She wore an opened white jacket over a small, black, tube top, and with an orange and white tie with a swirl symbol on it. With that, she had pleated shorts with thin black suspenders, and it was opened showing her orange underwear (though her tie covered it). And a pair of fingerless gloves, over black and orange sleeves, and matching socks below black leg warmers and black shoes. “What’s happenin’?”

“Oh, nothing much,” Neptune replied.

“Neptune...” Histoire said, frustrated.

“I hope we didn’t interrupt anything important,” Umio responded. Weird as it is, Umio was a blue fish with yellow fins, and human’s face (keeping a straight-faced expression, on top of that), that was hovering as if swimming through the air.

“Nothing you need to worry about,” Neptune told him.

“Oh, geez...” Nepgear replied.

“So, what are you two waiting for? It’s been too long since we’ve seen each other. Come on in, and LET’S PARTY!”

* * *

Later, both Neptunes, Nepgear, and Uzume were playing a game on Neptune’s console.

“What, no way!” Small Nep said in disbelief.

“Yep, with that, I’ll just move twice the spaces, and…” Big Nep said, as her character began moving along the screen. “Voila, now I take that for myself!”

“Oh, come on!”

“YOU come on! Don’t be such a party pooper.”  
  
Histoire sighed, at the immaturity of the goddess and her human counterpart. “Is this really what Planeptune has to deal with.”

“Cut them some slack, Histy,” Nepgear said, still playing the game.

“I suppose. So... Uzume, and Big Neptune,” Histoire said, hoping to change the conversation. “I know you’ve been touring other dimensions again. Did you have a good trip?”

“Oh, yeah, it was amazing. I saw a really pretty group of these special butterflies and I managed to capture them in my book. Uzume almost chased them off, though.” She joked.

“Hey!” Uzume replied.

“Ooh, and we visited this one dimension where all of you guys had kids or something,” Big Nep continued.

“Huh...!” the smaller Nep and her sister exclaimed.

"Yeah, that was crazy!" Uzume said. "You guys with our Lastation friends, Noirsy and Unisy, and-"

"Stop!" Nepgear exclaimed, her face red.

“Okay, okay,” Big Nep said. “How about this. We saw a dimension where there were these new goddesses, because something happened to the past ones, and... I don’t remember why. Hey, Croisty! Do you remember anything interesting?”

“No, I did not! Because I’m stuck in you’re stupid f***ing book!” a voice called out from Big Nep’s pocket.

“Oh, that’s right. I forgot about Darksty. How are you doing?” Small Nep asked.

Croire was a dark tome, sort of an opposite to Histoire. She had the power to travel to different dimensions, so that she could, much like her counterpart, record history. However, she likes to manipulate events, in order to “make interesting history”, and thus ruins everything for everyone.

At some point, she was captured in Big Nep’s Nep-Note, a magic specimen book she uses to capture her bugs. It shrinks them down and, with a little tape, it is sealed inside. Once captured, Big Nep can use the Nep-Note to use the powers of those sealed inside. Using Croire’s power is how Big Nep is able to travel to other worlds.

“Maybe if you let me out of this book, I’ll be fine!” Croire responded sharply.

“You know we can’t do that,” Big Nep said. “If we do, you’ll go off and make a mess of things again.”

“Oh? And what makes you think I’d ever do that?” she teased.  
  
“Literally every time you show up,” both Neps exclaimed.

“Excuse me, but there is something I just thought,” Histoire spoke up. “Big Neptune, which dimension do you come from?”

“Hm, I don’t know. Never really thought about what it was called,” she replied.

“Oh, dear.”

“I remember you talking about it with me and Uzume,” Nepgear told them. “You said that there was a different goddess in charge of Planeptune. You really didn’t remember the name, but you said it was ‘Plu-something’?”

“Wait,” Small Nep interjected. “‘Plu?’ Do you mean like... ‘Plutia’?”

“Plutia...? Yeah, that sounds familiar,” Big Nep replied.

“Oh, of course!” Nepgear exclaimed, “I should have known!”

“Wait, Gearsy, you know this person?” Uzume asked.

“Yeah! Both me and Neptune got stuck in her dimension for a while, and we became friends.”

“So, what you are saying is... you’ve been to Big Neptune’s home dimension?” Umio replied.

“Of course we have!” Small Nep exclaimed, “the Ultradimension!”

“That sounds familiar, too,” Big Nep replied.

“You’re an idiot...” Croire said, annoyed. No one mentioned it, but she was the reason Small Nep got trapped in that dimension in the first place.

“So... did you ever think about going back?” Uzume asked.

“What? We just got back from a big trip!” Big Nep responded. “I want to relax!”

“Sure, but this is my home, Big Nepsy. I’m talking about yours!”

“You know, I bet Plutia would love to find out that there is another Neptune,” Small Nep told them.

“Yeah, but are you sure she won’t... you know?” Nepgear asked nervously. She pressed her fingertips together shyly.

“You are human, correct?” Umio asked Big Nep. “Do you have family at home?”

“Well... there is my mom,” Big Nep told them. “Man, I haven’t seen her since I started touring the other worlds.”

“Then we should go see her!” Uzume exclaimed excitedly.

“Wait, Uzume, do you plan to leave again?” Histoire asked.

“And you’re going to leave so soon?” Small Nep said, disappointed.

“Well, I’m just curious what Big Nepsy’s mom is like. That, and I’d kind of like to meet this Plutia person,” Uzume explained.

“Well, just be careful not to make her mad... or randy.”

“Okay... Anyways, it’ll be fine. I may be a CPU of Planeptune, but I’m not THE CPU of Planeptune. At least, not anymore.”

“Man, why do I feel like you’re throwing me under the bus.”

“Well... I suppose you are right,” Histoire said, “but that’s not what I’m worried about. Going to the Ultradimension, you may lose your powers, Uzume.”

“Heh, that’s why I carry a Share Crystal with me when I travel with Big Nepsy,” Uzume told her.

“While that may be so, it might not work there. At least, not immediately. Let me explain. You know that goddesses are born from the faith of their people, if a large amount of Shares are gathered in a large influx. Well, in the Ultradimension, it is different. One can only become a goddess with a CPU Memory.”

“Really? Hey Big Nepsy, did you know about this?”

“I... think so...” she replied. “Or, maybe not...”

"Do you know anything about your d*** world!?" Croire retorted.

"Oh, shut up, Croire," Uzume replied.

"If I may continue, a human can use a CPU Memory to gain the powers of a goddess. Then, if I recall correctly, they will go on to create a brand new nation, which they would lead. However, if one is not compatible with the CPU Memory, they'll turn into a monster instead, so there is a certain amount of risk involved," Histoire explained. "Now, since you are already a goddess, I have no fear that you'll turn into a monster. However, when Neptune was first sent there, she lost her powers, and became human. It wasn't until a short time later that regained her powers by finding a CPU Memory."

“Don’t forget about me,” Nepgear interjected.

“Yeah, but then you left us for Vert,” Small Nep teased. “Don’t forget about your ‘Turncoat Affinity’.”

“Oh, don’t remind me. Those are some really unpleasant memories.”

“Is this... something we should know about?” Uzume asked.

“Not really,” both of the CPU sisters answered.

“Alright, so the point is, if I go with Big Nep to her home dimension, I’ll need to find myself a CPU Memory? Doesn’t sound too hard.”

“So, I guess we’re going then?” Big Nep asked.

“Of course! We go meet your mom and Plutia, then we just find a CPU Memory. Actually, you know what, I’ll find the CPU Memory before we meet Plutia, so I can challenge her to a sparring match as Goddesses!”

“That won’t help you against Plutia,” Small Nep commented.

“Are you doubting me?” Uzume asked.

“No, but Plutia... Anyways, when are you guys going to go?”

“I don’t see why we can’t leave now,” Big Nep told her. “Come on, Crostie!”

“Uh, news flash, I can’t,” the sealed tome responded. “You used all of my power just getting back here!”

“Oh, well...”

“Actually, there is a portal to the Ultradimension here in Planeptune!” Small Nep told them. “We could lead you right over there.”

“Eh, that’ll work,” Big Nep replied.

“I suppose I should contact the other Histoire,” Histoire mentioned.

“Woah, there’s another Histy? That’s so cool!” Uzume replied.

“Yep! We call her ‘Mini Histy,’ because she’s so small!” Neptune told her.

“But isn’t Historie already quite small?” Umio inquired. “No offense, Histoire.”

“None taken. But yes, my other version is indeed, even smaller than I. But do be careful, she doesn’t like being called ‘slow.’”

“But she is!” Small Nep said. “Hey, you know what. Don’t tell her they’re coming! Make it a surprise!”

“Neptune, they are going to want to know that they’re coming, or else they might think that Uzume is a rival goddess. They should know Uzume isn’t coming to make a new nation.”

“Uzume sure, _but_ I’m talking about big me! Think about how surprised they will be to see another Neptune!”

“Ooh, I like that idea!” the other Neptune replied.

“Just tell them that there is going to be a surprise coming with Uzume!”

Histoire sighed. “Very well,” she agreed.

“Alright, LET’S GO!”

* * *

“See ya Small Nepsy, see ya Gearsy!” Uzume waved goodbye as she, Big Neptune, and Umio walked through the portal to Ultradimension. Then quietly to herself, she said, “and goodbye Orange Heart. For now."

“Bye! Hope you enjoy seeing your mother again, Neptune!” Nepgear called back.

“Remember, Plutia is really nice, as long you are nice back!” Small Nep added, just as their friends crossed the threshold.

“I don’t know what the deal with this Plutia is, but the way they talk about her makes me a little nervous,” Uzume said once they made it across the other side.

“I concur,” Umio replied. “They may be friends, but there is something they seem too nervous to tell us.”

“Well, we’ll find out later. So, your mom? Where does she live?”

“In Planeptune city, of course.” The adult Neptune pointed to the city skyline in the distance, above the treeline in the forest they were in. “We should go to the central plaza. Once we get there, I’ll know where to go from there.”

“ _Sure_ you will...” Croire mocked. “Like you know anything about your own-”

“Please, calm down,” Umio interrupted. “No need to start a fight.”

“Oh, I’d LOVE to start a fight. Let me out, and-”

“Man, I can’t wait to see mom again,” Neptune exclaimed. “Let’s go!”

“Oh, sure, just ignore me...”

Traveling through the forest and making their way into the city, they made their way to the center, just as Neptune said.

“So, if I remember correctly...” Neptune told them, “I think home is that way!”

As they began to follow their purple-haired friend, Uzume asked, “So, Big Nepsy, what is your mom like?”

“Hm, I think she was... a very kind woman, though she’s sometimes disapproving of what I do. I’d wish she’d appreciate my bug collecting more. Oh, she also likes music!”

“Sounds like a fair description,” Umio replied. “What is her name?”

“Oh, uh... Hey, we’re here!” Neptune brought them to a large apartment building, which on the front was a sign reading “Solar System Apartments”. “See, it wasn’t far,” she told them, as she entered the building.

“She doesn’t know,” Uzume said.

“Well, we’ll just have to ask her when we get inside,” Umio replied.

Neptune led to the elevator, and hit the button for the top floor.

“So, you live at the top?” Uzume asked.

“Yep, my mom owns the building,” Neptune replied casually.

“What! Maybe you should've started with that!”

“I don’t know, what’s the big deal?”

“The deal is that you are an idiot!” Croire spoke up.

“Ah, I know you don’t mean that.”

Croire gumbled in response.

Getting to the top, and leading them down the hallway to the room at the end, Neptune presented them with... her front door.

“Here we are! Home, sweet home!” Neptune exclaimed.

“Wow, you actually found your way back. That’s impressive!” Croire said in a sarcastic tone.

“So, this is where you live,” Umio said.

“Yep! Now all we have to do is knock and-” before Nepute could finish, the door slammed open.

Standing at the door was an adult woman, older than Ultra Neptune, though just as developed. She had long light-purple hair styled in a long braid, purple eyes, and a black ribbon choker with a gold star charm. She had on a T-shirt with a K-pop band, black jeans, and a pair of black flats. On her wrists, she had a watch, and several bracelets with planets and stars on them, and her nails were painted purple.

“I thought I heard your voice...” the woman exclaimed, “Neptune, you’re back!” Without warning, she pulled Neptune into a hug, squeezing her tightly.

“Hey, mom- Nice to see you- You’re, uh, squeezing me-” Neptune said, barely getting the words out.

Ignoring her statement, the woman, apparently Neptune’s mother, sobbing, responded with, “I missed you! Where did you go!? You disappeared one day, and I tried to find and- and-”

“Oh- That’s… right-”

Speaking from her pocket, Croire said, “I just KNEW there had to be something you screwed up!”

“And did YOU think to tell us?” Uzume asked her.

“Well, I… didn’t care to remember, and-”

“So, you’re no better than Nepsy.”

“I-” And with no retort, Croire shut up.

“Ooh, burn-” Neptune teased, still being squeezed to death

Finally taking notice of her friends, Neptune’s mother let go of her and stepped back to get a better look. “So... are these… your friends.”

“Yep, I’m Uzume, and this Umio,” the redhead introduced the two of them.

“Oh, what a lovely name, and...” she trailed off when she noticed Umio was a fish. “Well, my name is Mercury, though people like to call me Merci. Please, why don’t you come in!” she stepped back inside, motioning them to come in.

Stepping inside and closing the door behind them, Umio asked, “so, you are Neptune’s mother, correct?”

“Yes. It was so heartbreaking when Neptune left, I just didn’t know what to do. I asked our goddess for help, everything, but she was just... gone!” Merci answered him. She then turned to Neptune, “seriously, where did you go!?”

“Oh, well, do you remember that really cool butterfly I found?” Neptune replied.

“Yes, I do. You went to show all your friends. And that was the last time I saw you.”

“Well, apparently, she was actually some dark fairy-girl book-person, who could travel dimensions! I put her in my Nep-Note, and used her power to tour other worlds, and collect more interesting specimens!”

“Again, with the bugs...? Also, more importantly, why didn’t you let me know! I was so worried… I started thinking that you were dead, or worse!” Merci started to tear up again.

“I- I- I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to. I just... forgot.”

“You always forget! But now you’re not even thinking about your own mother?”

“I’m... sorry. Please don’t hate me! I love you!” And Neptune came in for her own hug, though she didn’t squeeze quite as hard.

When she let go, Merci wiped her eyes. “Thank you! I’m just happy your back. And you’ve made new friends!”

Croire still grumped in Neptune’s pocket, “I am NOT her friend, you dumb broad!”

“Is… is that the ‘fairy’ you were talking about? You should know better. It’s not nice to keep someone trapped in your book!”

“You know, to be fair, if you let her out, she’s going to start causing trouble, and become a huge pain in the ass. Like she was for us!” Uzume informed Merci.

“What kind of trouble?” she inquired.

“The world ending kind.”

“Oh, screw you! It’s just a little fun!” Croire yelled.

“Okay! The fairy stays in the book. Understood,” Merci said.

“Good. Now, is there something to eat around here? I’m starving!” Uzume exclaimed.

“Yes, Neptune could you show here to the kitchen? The snacks are in the same place they have always been.”

“Yes. Come on!” Neptune said excitedly, as she led Uzume in the kitchen.

Merci slumped down on one of the chairs in the room. “She’s back. She’s really back! And she’s changed so much!”

Umio floated by another chair, as if imitating sitting down himself. “I haven’t known her that long myself. What was she like before?”

“Well, to be honest, she was pretty irresponsible. She’d always prefer to play her games or hunt for her bugs, and she’d never get any work done!”

“That sounds familiar,” Umio responded thoughtfully.

“I wonder if I spoiled her too much, growing up. Then, again, she’s never had a good attention span.”

“If I may ask, how long has she been gone?”

“Oh, almost six years.”

“That is indeed a long time to be away from home. No wonder you were worried.”

Merci turned to Umio. “She had turned thirteen earlier that month. Actually, I gave her that Nep-Note for her birthday. I’ve never been a huge fan of her bug collecting, but she loved it, so I wanted to support her in her hobby. I hope she’s been using it responsibly.”

“As far I know, she’s only used it for capturing her ‘specimens’, and the occasional villain.”

“Goodness!” Merci replied in shock. “She doesn't have any more of those, does she!?”

“As far as I know, Croire is the only resident in that book,” Umio assured her.

“So, you’ve been traveling with her. Have you been keeping her out of trouble? Or trying to, at least?”

“You could say that. She’s been traveling with Uzume for a short while, and I do my best to help Uzume when she needs it. So why not extend a fin to Neptune as well.”

“Well, thanks for helping.” Merci got up from her chair. “We should check on the girls.”

In the kitchen, Neptune and Uzume had found some cookies and were munching on them with some milk.

“Hey, mom!” Neptune waved over to Merci and Umio as they came in.

“Hey. Enjoying those cookies?” Merci asked.

“Yep, but I really wish you had some pudding!”

“Pudding? I didn’t know you liked that.”

“Oh, she loves it! It’s like a... universal trait,” Uzume explained.

“I see... well, I’ll have to go get some tomorrow.”

“Yes!” Neptune exclaimed.

“So... are you planning on staying?” Merci asked.

“Hm, I haven’t thought about that.”

“Well, we’ll be here for a while, won’t we, Nepsy,” Uzume replied. “I want to tour this dimension. Not to mention find that CPU Memory!”

“Oh, I take you’re not from here?” Merci said. “given my daughter has apparently been traveling to other worlds, of course.”

“Yeah. Me and Umio are from the Hyperdimension. I actually happen to be a CPU of that world’s Planeptune.”

“You? You’re a CPU!?”

“Yeah, well, thing is, because of how your world works, coming here, I’ve lost my powers, and right now, I’m just a human like you and Nepsy. But once I find a CPU Memory, I’ll totally get my powers back!”

“A CPU Memory, huh? Well, I can’t help you there. I never really was interested in those things, not to mention the risks.”

“It’s okay, I’ll get one eventually! Just you wait!”

“Man, I just have to say, things haven’t really changed around here much,” Neptune said, “though I haven’t seen my old game console. Also, you don’t have the toaster anymore. What happened to it?”

“I still have your console, I just had to put it away because- Wait, the toaster’s missing?” Merci suddenly seemed surprised, but also annoyed.

“A yeah, it’s not there anymore.”

“Do you think it got stolen?” Uzume asked.

Merci let out a frustrated groan, as she let put her face in her hands, then snapping back up. “Ugh, that girl is going to drive me crazy!” She then started stomping off towards the bedrooms

“Wait, girl-who!?” Neptune asked.

Merci came to a dead stop, then turned around. “Oh, I guess I forgot to tell you...”

“Eh, don’t worry about,” Uzume said, “We all seem to be forgetting something today.”

“Really? What did you forget, Uzume?” Neptune asked.

“Maybe to zip up her pants?” Merci replied, suddenly very stern.

“Nope, it’s like that purposely,” Uzume exclaimed.

Merci just sternly glared at her.

“Ugh, fine,” Uzume said she buttoned her shorts. “Do you really have to nag me, lady.”

“That’s what mothers are for. Even if you are not my daughter and, yes, even if you are a CPU,” Merci said, “Anyways, Neptune, I... You know what, let me show you. Come with me.”

The girls looked at each other nervously. Who was this “girl”? Why was she so important to Neptune that just had to see her?

Deciding to follow Neptune’s mother, she led them to one of the bedrooms. The door was ajar for some reason.

“...This is my room,” Neptune said upon arriving.

“Yes, well, I have to give her someplace to sleep,” Merci replied. She slowly pushed the door open.

Sitting in the middle of the floor, was indeed a girl, no more than five years old. She had long, light purple hair, and purple eyes. She had a black D-pad hair clip in her hair, very similar to the ones Ultra Neptune had. She was wearing a black and purple sailor-style dress with a yellow ribbon held together with an N-band, an outfit that seemed familiar. She also had a pair of black and purple shoes.

“Is that...?” Neptune started.

“You’re kidding,” Uzume added.

The little girl had something in her lap. Upon closer inspection, it was a toaster, likely the one that was missing from the kitchen. Though it was in the process of being taken apart by the girl with a tiny screwdriver.

“Excuse me?” Merci sternly announced, getting the girl’s attention. As she looked up from her “project”, Merci said, “just what do you think you’re doing with that, young lady?”

“Take... taking it apart, mommy. I wanted to play with it,” the little girl pouted.

“‘M-mommy?’” Neptune replied.

“Give me that,” Merci said as she leaned down, and took the toaster from her.  
  
“NO!” the girl screamed as she got up, trying to get her the toaster back. She began crying as it was pulled out of reach.

“You know better than to take things that aren’t yours.”

“GIVE IT BACK!” the girl screamed, tears streaming down her face.

“Now, now, calm down.” Merci put the partially taken apart toaster on top of a nearby bookcase, out of her reach. She then walked behind the girl, while saying, “there is someone you have to meet.”

She knelt down behind the girl and pointed in Neptune’s direction. The girl looked up at her, only to immediately turn around and clutch her “mommy”.

“She's just shy,” Merci apologized to the others. Looking back at the girl, she said, calmly, “come on, they’re not going to hurt you.” The girl looked back up at Neptune, shyly at first, but then in curiosity. “Yeah, she looks like you and me, doesn’t she,” Merci continued. “It just so happens that she is your older sister, Neptune.”

Looking back at the older girl, Merci told her, “Neptune, please meet your little sister, Nepgear.”

* * *

_Earlier, back on the other side of the portal..._

“Whelp, there they go,” Neptune said. “Off on another adventure!”

“I sure hope Plutia isn’t too hard on them,” Nepgear said.

“Still think I’m not the lead in this story. I mean, that is ME...”

“That’s a different version of you, Neptune. I don't think that counts.”

“Fine... Still, I wonder what’s going to happen on their side?”

“Who knows. Knowing them, anything might happen!”

“As great as this conversion is,” Histoire said, “now that your party is over, you need to catch up on work.”

“Oh, come on, can’t you do it!?” Neptune complained.

“No. You need to be taking responsibility as the CPU to your nation. Besides, once we get back, I still have to contact the other me about Uzume. ...And before you say it, no, Nepgear can not do it for you, either.”

“OH, COME ON!” Neptune yelled, her voice being carried across Virtua Forest.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **Jacob:** This was a long chapter, and I usually don’t like to write those. But sometimes that just happens, and there is no good way to split them up. And in this case, since it is the first chapter, there was no way I was not going to end it with the focus of the story.
> 
> I have a personal rule where when I make a new story, I write the first three chapters before uploading anything, and then I upload all three at once to give a good start to the story. But in this case, since this chapter was so long, we’re uploading two chapters to start instead, since it’s enough content for three anyways.
> 
> Also, if you want to know what they were playing earlier, it was supposed to be a parody of “Sonic Shuffle”, SEGA’s answer to “Mario Party” (Sonic’s special ability to occasionally get double spaces). Seemed appropriate with Neptune’s connection to the SEGA console line. I haven’t played Sonic Shuffle, but I’ve seen it in action, and, yeah... it looks pretty bad. But it was a subtle reference, so whatever.
> 
> And those dimensions Big Nep mentioned, other story ideas for Hyperdimension that I came up with. I hope to start writing them sometime soon, but I’m still planning them, not to mention my art on my Devi, and the other two stories I write, “Sapphire the Hedgehog'' and “Undertale Fallen Determination''.
> 
>  **Savannah:** We were planning on making a chapter a week, but life and things got in the way, so we are now aiming for two a month, so we have spaced out time in between writing and editing. There have also been a lot of… interesting events in my life lately, leading to having to either halt or pause our writing occasionally. Hopefully, that doesn’t happen so often, since we have a better grasp on how much we can do, now.


	2. Meeting Nepgear

“Little... sister...?” Neptune repeated, completely in disbelief. “...Nepgear...”

The little girl looked back up at Neptune, her innocent eyes filled with curiosity and uncertainty. “Nep...tune...” Her eyes were still filled with tears from before.

“Yeah. You know, you can call me anything you like! Nep, Neptuna, Nep-Nep, Nepper,” The older girl responded, though the kid still seemed confused. “...Or maybe, just, big sis!”

“Big... sis...” Nepgear said in consideration. “Big sis. Big sis!”

“Yeah, big sis! Now come on, give your big sis a hug!”

Neptune held out her arms, but Nepgear scrambled deeper into her mother’s embrace.

“Uh, did I scare you?” Neptune questioned.

“Now, now, sweetie, it’s okay. She won’t hurt you. Go on, give your sister a hug!” Merci encouraged.

“...Okay,” Nepgear said. She let go of Merci and slowly approached Neptune. As she reached her older sister, she wrapped her arms around her, and Neptune did the same.

“There you go. Ooh, I love you already!” Neptune exclaimed.

“Big sis...?” Nepgear said.

“Yeah.”

“Your pillows are soft. And squishy.”

“Uh, yeah. My pillows. Hey, um, what pillows?”

“These ones,” Nepgear replied, pulling her tiny hand back, and pushing down on Neptune’s boob.

“Oh! Now I get it!”

“Nepgear, sweetie, you that’s inappro-” Merci started.

“I mean, I am pretty well-developed,” Neptune responded. “Don’t you think so, mom?”

“...priate…” Merci slowly finished. “Oh, dear... Please, don’t say things like that to your sister. Don’t encourage her. We don’t want her getting the wrong idea.”

“Oh, what’s the harm? I know, that one day, she’ll have a great set all her own.”

“Neptune...”

Umio and Uzume were simply just taking this all in, Umio deep in thought about what this could mean, and Uzume in awe. But then, Uzume’s expression turned to one of bliss, and she exclaimed, in a high-pitched, girly voice, “SHE’S... SO... CUTE!”

Merci was startled by the sudden shift in pitch from her guest’s voice, while Nepgear pulled away from her sister, the adult woman just staring at the redhead in confusion. Neptune and Umio, however, were familiar with this, and just gave a “yeah, we know” look.

“She’s just the most adorable thing ever!” Uzume continued on her cute ramage. “She like a... Smolgear! I could just gobble her up!”

“Uzume,” Umio finally interjected, “you’re doing it again.”

“Oh, uh,” Uzume cleared her throat, as her voice returned to normal. “Sorry, that was just- uh.” She put her gaze back onto the little Nepgear. “Arg, I DON’T CARE!” She screamed as her voice became high-pitched again, “She’s just too cute! Come here!”

Uzume reached down, and lifted the little girl off the ground and into a huge bear hug, as said girl screamed in surprise.

“NO! Put me down! Put me down!” Nepgear complained.

“Uzume, please, she’s not comfortable with this,” Merci told her.

“I, oh...” Uzume put Nepgear back down, “Sorry, I...” she cleared her throat again. “Sorry, just got caught up in... the moment,” she explained.

“That’s alright, I understand. Also, please, don’t be so loud. Not only is it rude to my tenants, but loud sounds also tend to scare poor Nepgear.”

“Oh, yeah. I’ve got quite the vocal cords. But I’ll keep quiet, don’t worry.”

“Quite the vocal cords. That’s an understatement.”

“Hey, what did you mean by that!?” Uzume said in a mock offended tone.

“So, anyway, I know you plan to tour the... ‘dimension’, but again, I assume you’re planning on staying?” Merci asked.

“Well, with a surprise like this, I’d think we’d stay for at least a bit," Uzume said. “I mean... there’s a little Gearsy!” Uzume stopped herself at that. “Little Gearsy... little... Lil’ Gearsy! That’s what I’ll call her!”

“Okay then. Anyways, we should get you someplace to sleep,” Merci informed them, “I have a guest room you and Umio can stay in, as for Neptune...” she sighed. “...I’m sorry, after a while, I decided to move your stuff out of your room.”

Looking around, outside of the bookcase, Neptune did see that none of her old things were in there, not even her bed. Instead, there was a smaller bed (definitely for Nepgear), a nightstand, and a box of toys. In her closet, she could see that her old clothes (not that any of them would fit her anymore) were replaced with little kid’s clothing.

“I still have it all, don’t worry, and we can move some of it back in here,” Neptune’s mom said, “But we’ll need to rearrange some stuff in here to make them fit. You don’t mind sharing a room with Nepgear, do you?”

“Of course not, anything to hang out with my adorable little sister!” Neptune replied, hugging the little Nepgear again.

Nepgear looked up at her big sister. She had a shy expression first, but then gave her a big, happy smile, causing Neptune to squee in delight.

Uzume, trying to move things along, if only to simply avoid letting herself have another outburst, said, “so, I could help with the furniture. I know Nepsy probably really wants to hang with Lil’ Gearsy, and I don’t mind helping. I’m pretty strong.”

“Hm, very well,” Merci responded, “but you will be helping out later, correct, Neptune?”

Neptune sighed. “Yes, mom... Now, come here, you,” as the older girl squeezed her sister again.

Leaving Merci’s daughters to their playtime, Merci led Uzume and Umio to the storage room, where Neptune’s old bed and such were, well, stored.

“So,” Umio spoke up, hoping to start some new conversion, “are you married? Neptune and Nepgear do have a father, yes?”

“Yes, I was married but we got divorced a long time ago,” Merci replied. “Neptune was really young when we separated, I bet she doesn’t even remember who he was. Not that it matters, he was just some deadbeat, anyways. Probably went off to Leanbox, to do who knows what.”

“So, wait... What about Nepgear?” Uzume asked.

“Well,” Merci sighed. “I’ve had so many boyfriends, I don’t know which one would be her father…”

Uzume and Umio got sweat drops from the... implications of what their host just said. “...So, they’re more like half-sisters...” Umio finally replied.

“Well, none of that matters,” Merci exclaimed, “I love my daughters more than anything in the world. And I’m so happy that Neptune has rejoined our little family. And of course, you are welcome here anytime, as well.”

“Thanks,” Uzume replied. “So, you mentioned that you met with the CPU here in this Planeptune, right? What was she like?”

“Oh, well, she was pretty relaxed, a slow speaker. When I came to her asking about Neptune, she simply said that she was fine, but wasn’t exactly sure where she was, just saying she was home. It was very frustrating, but well... at least she seemed caring.”

Uzume thought about how the other Neptune said she was friends with the CPU here. She figured that Plutia must’ve mistaken Merci’s daughter for her friend. That was kind of depressing to think about...

But more importantly, she wasn’t seeing any signs of why Neptune was so nervous to talk about her. Plutia sounded really nice. So what was the big deal?

“I suppose it is nice to live under such a good-hearted goddess,” Umio chimed in.

“Yeah, I mean, I know this’ll sound biased, but...” Merci took a deep breath. “Lastation’s CPU works too hard, and I’d prefer a more relaxed environment, especially for Nepgear. Lowee’s is a half-pint, and she seems to have some issues with that. I don’t trust her judgment. And Leanbox... their CPU just doesn’t seem like the kind of role model I want my little one to have. Now, I have heard some scary things about Lady Iris Heart, but she seems nice enough. Planeptune is where I grew up, and I can’t imagine a better place to raise my children, or better goddess to watch over us.”

Now this caught Uzume’s attention! Disregarding the praise Merci gave her goddess, it sounded like Plutia, or Iris Heart, from the sounds of it, could be a lot more fierce than she appeared. Maybe she was like her and Neptune, where they changed a lot when they transformed. Perhaps this fight she wanted would be better than she thought.

“N-now don’t let my opinions affect what you think about the other nations,” Merci added quickly, “I know you wanted to tour this world, and I don’t want to ruin your experience!”

“No, that’s quite alright,” Umio replied. “In fact, it sounds very similar to our own world in some ways. So, what was it like when Nepgear was born?”

“Oh, that... It was a few months after Neptune disappeared. I was just starting to believe she might have died, and my goddess hadn’t helped much in that regard. Of course, now that I know she’s alive, I’m happy to have been wrong!” she quickly noted. “Anyways... soon after, I found out I was pregnant with Nepgear. It was... honestly a very confusing time. But I decided that it was best to take a second chance as a mother with my sweet little Nepgear.”

“Ah, that’s sweet,” Uzume replied, pulling herself out of her thought process of this world’s Planeptune CPU.

“Well, it’s honestly been harder than trying to raise Neptune. With her, all I had to worry about was her interest in bugs. With Nepgear, she’s always trying to take apart something. And she never gets the hint! I know she’s young, but... I don’t know how she could be this smart already. I mean, she’s capable of taking machines apart, and she’s five! At the very least, having to put everything back together myself has made me quite tech-savvy. My approval ratings with my tenants have gone up since I have been able to make basic repairs by myself.”

“Yes, that is quite a useful skill,” Umio replied. “It would seem that Neptune has taken quite a shine to the young Nepgear, so, we’ll likely be in Planeptune for quite a while as the sisters start bonding together.”

“It’s definitely nice to have someone for my little girl to play with,” Mercury replied. “I hope they become very close, though…” she trailed off.

“Everything, okay?” Uzume asked.

“Yes, I’m just worried, they're so different. Worried they might not get along.”

“I’m sure it’ll be fine. Neptune is super friendly.” Uzume looked around the storage room. “So, where is this bed?”

“Over here, I believe,” Merci pointed to a box of bed frame pieces, sitting on top of a covered mattress. “It should be easy to put back together, though it’s heavy-”

“No problem,” Uzume replied as she attempted to lift the box... and FAILURE! “Huh, seems I don’t have my goddess strength. Eh, now I just have more reason to find the Memory!”

“Well, I certainly wish you luc-” Merci started before being interrupted by sudden screaming.

Nepgear ran into the room, and latched onto her mom.

“Hey, you okay, Lil’ Gearsy?” Uzume asked.

“What’s wrong, sweetie?” Merci continued.

“Bi- bi- big sis’s book fairy is MEAN!” Nepgear spouted. “She said naughty words and made fun of me!”

Behind her, Neptune popped up. “So... yeah, Croirsty wasn’t really nice to Nepgear...”

“Not my fault she’s such a stupid brat,” the dark tome replied.

“Hey, stop that! Or else, I...” Neptune trailed off.

“You don’t-”

“I’ll keep her in my room for you,” Merci interrupted Croire, addressing Neptune. “If she won’t behave, I’ll stuff her in my desk drawers, if you don’t mind.”

Neptune thought about this. “Hm, I don’t like leaving my Nep-Note behind, but...” she looked at her little sister. “Alright, I’ll just have to get my specimens the old-fashioned way, for now. I’d rather let my little sister keep her innocence, then let it be ruined by a meanie like Croisty!’

“Meanie!” Nepgear echoed.

“F*** you two!” Coire said.

Neptune quickly handed her mother the Nep-Note. Then, she left her daughters with Uzume and Umio while she locked Coire away.

“So, that happened,” Uzume exclaimed.

“Nepgear, please, promise you’ll never say those words,” Umio told the little girl.

“Yes, mister fishy,” Nepgear replied.

“So, Neptune, can you help me with your bed?” Uzume asked.

“Sure...” the purple woman said. Neptune figured it would be a while before she saw Croire again. Hopefully, she’ll learn her lesson by then.

* * *

_Meanwhile, in the Ultradimension Planeptune Basilicom..._

Within the confines of the building, the CPU of Planeptune, Plutia, was hanging out with her best friend, Noire, CPU of Lastation, and the child CPU, Peashy.

Plutia had light purple hair styled into a long braid with a pink bow at the end, and magenta eyes. She wore a white choker, and a pajama-like teal dress mixed with pink, white, and light orange colors, and matching thigh-high socks and bear slippers.

Noire (of the Ultradimension) had long black hair styled into twin tails with blue ribbons, and red eyes. The had a dark gray top with another blue ribbon revealing her mid-riff, detached sleeves open on the arms and held together with black straps and buckles, and a black pleated skirt with blue highlights. She also had blue knee socks and dark gray boots.

Peashy had short strawberry-blond hair with large red baubles in it, and cerulean blue eyes. She wore a short one-piece jumpsuit with a bee motif with star designs on the sleeves and lower part, and large red shoes.

“Plutia, you really should be a little more proactive in your work,” Noire told her friend. “Not napping all the time, or... making plushies.”

“But, Noire...” Plutia said in her slurred, sleepy tone of voice, “Making plushies is so fun...! Look...” She held up a Noire plushie she was working on. Probably the fifth one she’s made... in a month.

“Come on, Ploot just wants to play!” Peashy replied.

Noire looked down at the five-year-old goddess. “You don’t get it, do you? Us goddesses have a duty to our people!”

“Aw, you’re no fun~.”

“Yeah... here...” Plutia handed her the new plushie. Not that Noire needed _another_ one.

“Plutia, come on... I just want to help you-” Noire started.

“Come on, Noire... let’s sleep...” Plutia leaned against Noire as she closed her eyes. Noire just sighed.

“Excuse me, ladies, I have something to- Of course, why am I not surprised,” a new voice spoke up. The Ultradimension version of Histoire had arrived to speak with the goddesses, only to find Plutia asleep.

Ultra Histoire, who was indeed smaller than her Hyperdimension counterpart, had mid-length blond hair tied into twin tails with teal ribbons and a purple and with headdress. She wore a purple gown with orange designs on it and a teal ribbon. She also had white stockings and purple shoes with pink circles.

“Noire, could you wake Plutia up, please,” the small tome asked.

“...Come on, Plutia, get up!” Noire began shaking her friend, and pushed her off.

“Mm... mm... sleepy time...” Plutia mumbled.

“GET UP!” Noire shouted. “Histoire needs to talk to us!”

Plutia slowly woke back up, and rubbed her eyes.

“Good, now that everyone is up,” Histoire began, “I just got a message from my counterpart.”

“Is Neppy coming over...!” Plutia said, suddenly excited.

“As far as I am aware, no. But, some of Neptune’s friends have come to visit.”

“Neptune’s friends?” Noire asked. “Why are they coming to visit?”

“It would seem they enjoy traveling to other dimensions,” Histoire explained. “And they have yet to come here.”

“Okay, so why is this important. Are they going to come to see Plutia?”

“At some point, but... it would seem one of these visitors is a CPU. At least, she is in her home dimension. But she’s planning to find a CPU Memory, and then come to... challenge Plutia.”

“But why does she want to fight me?” Plutia asked.

“I don’t know, all I know is that this goddesses name is Orange Heart,” Histoire.

“What about her friend?” Peashy asked. “Is she fun? Is she like Neptuna?”

“It would seem Neptune requested that information is to be kept secret for now,” Histoire explained. “Though I don’t know-”

“Ooh! I love surprises~,” Plutia exclaimed. “Like unwrapping a present. So much fun~!”

“Yeah, but these are people. You can’t unwrap them, Plutia,” Noire replied.

“Oh, I _sure_ can~!”

Everyone went quiet at that. They all knew what she really meant by that, and that her “Sadie” side, as Neptune put it, was showing. Well, except for Peashy, who was too young to understand what she meant, and was just confused.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **Jacob:** I don’t have much to say here. As my co-writer explained in the last chapter, these two chapters took forever to finish.
> 
> What I will say is the the “pillows” joke is one I came up with, based on actual experience. Long story short, when I was a kid, I’d get bored in church, and sleep on my mom. Take that as you will.
> 
> The unwrapping joke is mine too. It just made sense, considering who Plutia is.
> 
>  **Savannah:** I utterly and completely forgot the joke Jacob and I made about one of the girls unwrapping people. Honestly, it feels like something a monster from Stranger Things would do...which leads me to believe that Croire might have one of the demogorgons as a pet. Or several.
> 
> Also, the joke about the pillows and such was hilarious to me. Jacob had to explain it to me a bit, but I laughed really hard once I got it. Never put two Autistics in a virtual room together. Hilarity ensues.
> 
> Also, I have my own experience with lady parts being slept on. My friend was sleeping on my shoulder and his head slipped. I had to put it back on my shoulder without waking him up and I felt so awkward!


	3. First-Time Gamer

The next day, as the sun rose, it's light shining through the windows, Neptune's eyes slowly opened up. For the first time in years, she had slept in her old bed, after she and Uzume set it up and reorganized the furniture.

As she tried to get up, she looked towards her little sister's bed, smiling, before realizing it was empty. At first, she thought that little Nep was already up, but then as she continued to move, she noticed something was holding her down. Looking down, Neptune found a small head of purple nestled against her chest, and below that, two tiny hands clutching her waist.

"Awe, aren't you adorable," Neptune said quietly, trying not to wake her, "trying to get on my good side, eh? Sleeping right next to me. You're so cute," she finished, ruffling her hair.

Before Neptune could go back to sleep, there was a knock on the door. "Girls, it's time to up!" The door then slowly opened, as Merci peered inside. "Girls- Oh..." Merci gave a small laugh at what she saw. "Oh, isn't that cute. I wish I had my camera."

Neptune smiled and gave Merci a peace sign, then patted her little sister. "Hey, little sis. Time to get up."

At first, there was no movement from the sleeping girl, but as Neptune tried to get up, she began to open her eyes. "Big sis..."

"Morning, Nep Jr. Rise and shine!"

Nepgear yawned as she began to roll out of bed (by actually rolling off). As she stood up, her big sis followed, sitting up, and slowly swinging her legs off the bed.

"Uzume and Umio are already up," their mother told them. "I'm preparing breakfast right now. So please get ready."

"'Kay," Neptune replied, as tiny Nepgear stood up and rushed for the door, yelling, "FOOD!"

"Wait, it's not ready yet, sweetie!" Merci called to her, but she had already made her way to the kitchen.

"I guess she's excited," Neptune said.

They made their way after Nepgear, and after a while, they, along with Uzume and Umio, were eating omelets.

"So, today I want to go to the market to get some more food," Merci says. "If there's going to be so many guests here, there's going to need to be plenty of it. So, I'm wondering if there is anything you want me to get. I know that Neptune wanted pudding."

"Oh, you know it," she replied with excitement, "I LOVE pudding!"

"Pudding?" Nepgear asked curiously. "What's that?"

"Oh, it's only one of the best things in the whole wide world! Even more than bugs!"

Nepgear seemed taken aback by the bug part, but she seemed really fascinated by this "pudding".

"Well, then I'll be sure to get plenty of it, then," Merci said. "Anything else?"

"I'm not sure, but I will say I'm not a fan of fish," Umio told her.

"I can see why..." Merci got up. "Well, if there is nothing else."

"Well, perhaps I could come with you, if nothing else, to at least help you find things these two might like," Umio added.

"Oh, well..." Merci wasn't sure about going grocery shopping with a strange, flying fish, but then again, he seemed to be good company, and his help could be useful. "Alright. Girls, can you take care of Nepgear?"

"Yes, of course," Neptune said. "More time to get to know my little sister."

"Yeah," Uzume replied. "Wanna chill out with us today?" she then asked the little Nepgear.

"Yeah!" Nepgear exclaimed, happily jumping up and down.

Merci grabbed her purse and approached them. "Well then, we should probably go."

"Of course," Umio said. And the two left, leaving Neptune and Uzume to watch Nepgear.

* * *

A short while later, Nepgear was in her room playing with her toys, which were colorful gear toys that could be put together in various ways. A good toy for someone who'd likes taking things apart and putting them together, such as little Nepgear.

Right then, Neptune and Uzume came back from the storage room. Both of them were carrying stuff, which caught Nepgear's attention.

"Hey, thanks for helping with this," Neptune said.

"Yeah, I mean, what's a household in Gamindustri without video games," Uzume said, holding the largest of the items, which to Nepgear was just a big box with glass on the front. "By the way, this is a really old school TV you have here."

"Well, you know." Neptune was holding a small box thingy, with some tinier, flat boxes, and some weird looking remotes with long rubber strings attached.

"What's that!?" Nepgear questioned, her curiosity taking over.

"Oh, this?" Neptune replied. "This is my old game console! I'm surprised that mom hasn't shown you this yet," she continued, oblivious to the fact Merci had almost mentioned that she needed to put it away yesterday, probably for good reason.

Nepgear, however, was simply amazed.

Uzume set down the TV in an open corner of the room, and she and Neptune began setting up the old console. Nepgear watched as wires were plugged into different things, and with a click, the big box's screen lit up.

"Woah…" Nepgear said in amazement.

"Yep, pretty cool, huh," Neptune told her. "Doesn't mom show you any movies or shows?"

"On her tablet thingy... I have to watch with her."

"That's fair. But you're being deprived of the world's number one past time," Uzume commented.

"Yeah, hey, do you want to play with me?" Neptune asked.

Nepgear eagerly nodded yes. Neptune smiled, and picked up a cartridge of something she thought her little sister might enjoy. Showing it to said girl, she found a picture with two cartoon animals on it, with a big 2 behind it. "Ooh..."

Neptune proudly inserted the cartridge into the console, flipped the switch on, and colorful moving images started appearing on the screen. While Nepgear stared in awe, Neptune handed her the controller.

Neptune started playing, going slowly as she tried to explain the controls to Nepgear, and let her keep up. Though Nepgear's character barely moved. Neptune was wondering if she was having a hard time figuring it out, when Uzume spoke out in her high-pitched voice.

"Ah, Lil' Gearsy's going all takey-aparty on the controller!"

 _Takey-aparty? What...?_ Neptune thought, as she looked over... to find Nepgear, rather than trying to play, had her screwdriver out and was trying to take apart the controller.

"Ah, ah, hey, little sis!" Neptune exclaimed, pausing the game. "That's not what you're supposed to do with that."

Nepgear looked and pouted, as Neptune grabbed the screwdriver, put it to the side, and helped put the controller in the right position in the little girl's hands (while Uzume cleared her throat).

"Okay, let me show what the buttons do," Neptune said. "These ones move your character." She helped Nepgear push down on the control pad, and she showed her how the character on the screen moved in response. "And this button makes him jump!" And with a push of a button, the character jumped.

Simply said, Nepgear was fascinated by this.

Neptune finished showing her little sister the simple controls, and started the game up again.

Things went well for a minute or two, before Nepgear's character stopped again. Looking over, Neptune found exactly what she wasn't hoping to find.

Nepgear was messing with the controller again. This time, she was poking her screwdriver (which she had again grabbed) at the buttons.

Neptune looked back at Uzume, and she just shrugged in response. The eldest Nep-sister sighed, and looked to her sibling. Yesterday, Neptune's mom just took the thing Nepgear was messing from her, but that made her upset. She didn't want that, she wanted Nepgear to be happy. Still...?

"Hey, Nepgear?" Neptune asked. Nepgear looked over, and her sister continued, "you know, these controllers are meant for playing with, not taking apart, right?"

"But... but... I want to. I want to know how they work," her sister replied.

"Yeah, but... then it won't work if you do that, right?"

"Hm... yeah... but then mommy makes them work again!"

"Sure she does, but that's not easy. And I'd like for them to work... right now. So could you hold off, for your big sis?" Neptune pleaded.

Nepgear seemed sad for a moment, but she said, "...Okay..."

Neptune smiled as they started playing again. Nepgear (as expected for a little kid) didn't play well, but that's why Neptune had her play the second character.

As Nepgear played, she tried to suppress the urge to mess with the controller again, for the sake of her sister. But she really wanted to know how the controller worked, and it started to bug her.

Eventually, Nepgear started shaking it, trying to hear the stuff inside, and started to go a little crazy with it.

"Woah, ok," Uzume spoke up, "I think that maybe the Lil' Gearsy should watch."

Looking at Nepgear, and seeing her shaking the device, Neptune reluctantly agreed. Nepgear probably was still too young to understand how these things were supposed to be used.

Uzume took over for Nepgear, and the little girl sat back behind the two older girls. She really wanted to take apart all of this stuff, but for now, she just watched as Neptune skillfully played through her game, with Uzume providing support play.

A short while later, Merci and Umio returned, the former carrying several bags of groceries. "We're back!" Umio called out.

Nepgear immediately got up and left the room, running over to see her mother. Neptune and Uzume looked over, then paused their game to follow.

"So, did you enjoy your time with your big sister?" Merci asked the excited Nepgear.

"Yeah. They showed me this... this..." she tried to explain.

"We showed her Nepsy's old game console," Uzume explained for her.

"Yeah, that!"

Merci looked at the two older girls with a sly expression. "So... how many times did she try to take the whole thing apart?"

"Uh..." Neptune sounded.

"Well..." Uzume said.

"We... tried showing her how to play..."

"But we had to make her watch..."

"Yep, that's what I expected," Merci said.

Nepgear really didn't understand what the problem was, but she still looked away shamefully.

Merci knelt down and told her youngest daughter, "Nepgear, please, your sister just wants to connect with you, but she doesn't like technology the same way you do. She doesn't want to know how they work, she just wants to use them. So, if she wants to play with you, can you promise to do that, and not take apart her toys?"

Nepgear nodded, saying, "I promise."

"So..." Neptune said, grabbing everyone's attention, "did you get the pudding!?"

Merci sighed, and handed her a bag full of them. "Here you go."

"Yes!" Neptune said, and turned to Nepgear. "Have you ever had pudding?"

Nepgear shook her head.

"Oh, you haven't experienced true bliss until you've had pudding!" Neptune grabbed some spoons, and then gave a pudding to Nepgear. "Come on! Try it!"

Nepgear took the pudding and a spoon and gingerly opened it up. As she spooned some of the custard substance and took a bite, her eyes went wide as she had just had a brand new, amazing experience in sweet treats.

"So, is it good?" Umio asked.

"Yes, mister fishy!" Nepgear replied. "It's so good!" Then she excited began chomping down on more pudding.

"Come everyone, pudding all around!" Neptune exclaimed, passing around puddings and spoons. Uzume eagerly accepted, while Merci just chuckled a bit and joined in to have pudding with her daughters, and Umio simply accepted politely.

And with that, everyone had a good time with a short pudding party. And enjoyed a new treat with her big sister.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **Jacob:** So, I had a lot of trouble getting to work on this with Savannah, so I ended up writing the second half by myself, but I did ask her to give some of the events for me to write (the stage of Nepgear trying to mess with the controller).
> 
> Another game reference! If you couldn't figure it out by the minimalistic descriptions, it's Sonic the Hedgehog 2 they were playing. Not my favorite of the classics, I prefer Sonic 3 and Knuckles (and I can't beat the Sonic 2 special stages, the only special stages I have never fully completed), but I know this is the fan-favorite, so I gave it the reference treatment.
> 
> So, when we started this, we thought that this idea had never been done before. But when reading other HDN fanfics in my free time, I found two. The first I found... it was just a subplot in a story that had about four or five story threads going on at the same time. It wasn't even the most important part of the story. And that story was the second of a series, and also mentioned to be canceled and in the process of being rewritten, so, you know.
> 
> The second I found... was five years old, and it only had one chapter, and was not complete. At this point, it's safe to assume it's an abandoned project. Which is a shame, because I liked the idea. Just because it's the same concept, doesn't mean it's the same story, and I liked where that story was going, but nothing is probably going to come of it. Shame.
> 
> It's probably not a big deal, but I'm the kind of person to give credit where credit is due. So, here are the names of the stories on Fanfic.net:  
> \- “Second Chance Sister 2: New Story” by decode9: [Second Chance Sister 2: New Story](https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12943526/1/Second-Chance-Sister-2-New-Story)  
> (Maybe read the first story if you’re going to read this, so you’re not confused: [Second Chance Sister](https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12881547/1/Second-Chance-Sister))  
> \- “Hyperdimension Neptunia the fanfic” by Fu-reiji22: [Hyperdimension Neptunia the fanfic](https://www.fanfiction.net/s/11287158/1/Hyperdimension-Neptunia-the-fanfic)
> 
> Oh, and I was the one who came up with "takey-aparty". You're welcome.
> 
>  **Savannah:** Since my schedule was being dumb, and I was tired a lot (thanks to my time with Farming Simulator 19), I couldn't do a lot with Jacob as far as the story goes. We figured it would be best to schedule it for Fridays and Saturdays 7:00 p.m. - 9:30 p.m., so that's our plan (barring any emergency situations or unforeseen circumstances).
> 
> And in reference to when Nepgear hugs her big sister, I imagined her looking like a purple cheerleader with pom-poms in tiny hands.
> 
> Hopefully, we'll get our c*** together next time (and, when I say "we", I mean "I").


	4. Adventures in Art

"Why would you keep me cooped up in there for so long?" Croire demanded. "Do you want me to suffocate?"

Neptune and her mother were sitting in the latter's bedroom. They agreed that it was time to talk to their resident tome, and try to convince her to act appropriately around the young Nepgear.

"Wanting you to suffocate and wanting you to behave are two different things, Croire," Merci said.

"Not where I'm standing," Croire countered.

"I hardly think that sort of attitude is needed right now."

"You're not my mother!"

"You know, Croirsty, all we want is for you to not be rude to my sister, or to say bad words," Neptune spoke up.

"Oh, I'll do whatever the f*** I want, b****," Croire replied.

"Then, I suppose we'll have to leave you inside my desk for now," Merci said.

"What! No wai-" Croire started, but she was plopped in her desk drawer, which was then closed and locked. Croire's muffled complaints sounded through, but Merci just sighed.

"How do you sleep like this?" Neptune asked.

"Earplugs," she answered simply.

"Oh..."

"Still, this is very stressful... You know what, let's do something together as a family."

"Oh, that sounds fun! What are we going to do?"

Merci thought about it for a moment, and then asked, "do you still like drawing, Neptune?"

"...Hm, haven't done that since I was younger," Neptune answered. "But maybe Nepgear would like to color."

"Yes, that's what I mean."

"Then let's do it!"

With a plan in place, Merci went to grab some paper and crayons, while Neptune got her sister, along with Uzume and Umio.

Once everyone gathered, Nepgear looked up at her sister and mother, asking curiously, "what are we doing?"

"Yeah," Uzume chimed in. "What's going on?"

"Well, my mom needs to de-stress..." Neptune replied, "so we're going to color together!"

"Really..."

"That actually sounds very interesting," Umio said.

"You sure?" Uzume continued, skeptical.

"Awe, I'd thought you would've loved to draw something cool," Neptune told her.

Uzume gave her a determined look, and said, "Alright, I will draw the coolest thing ever, and you can't stop me!"

And then Nepgear responded with, "wow...!"

Merci chuckled. "Yes, I think we could all use some de-stressing and take some time to color. Artistic expression is a good way to process feelings."

"Then let's do it!" Uzume exclaimed.

"Yay!" Nepgear cheered, as she reached for the crayons in her mother's hand.

* * *

Within the next few minutes, everyone was in various positions, on the kitchen floor (Neptune, Nepgear, and Uzume), sitting at the table (Merci), even Umio had joined in, working on the counter.

Nepgear had already finished one drawing, and was working on a second, through a seeming surge of inspiration (for what, nobody knew, yet). Neptune was taking her time with her piece, and Uzume was deep in thought about what she was doing. All the while, Merci and Umio were pretty calm as they drew.

"...And, done," Merci announced.

"It seems that I am done as well," Umio said.

"Ooh, ooh, let's see, let's see," Neptune replied, getting up.

As the others looked up, Umio smiled. "Okay, I'll start," and lifted up his paper.

His work of art was a crayon drawing of himself, wearing sunglasses, riding waves on a surfboard.

"Looking good there, Umio," Merci replied.

"Yeah, that's really cool!" Neptune added.

"Mister Fishy is so cool," Nepgear said.

"Well, this is what I drew," Merci said, showing off her piece.

It was a simple drawing of Nepgear and Neptune, both sitting on a gray circle with hints of blue and yellow.

"Oh, cool... what is it?" Neptune asked.

"Why it's my two wondering daughters sitting on the planet Mercury!" their mother explained.

"So, you're the planet?"

"Well, I'm named after the planet... and you're named after a planet, too!"

"Fair enough. Why do I look like mini-me?" Neptune had noticed that the drawing of her looked more like her counterpart in the Hyperdimension.

"Well... that's you before you... left," Merci answered, a tad bit ashamed. "Do you not like it?"

"No! No, not at all. I love it!" Neptune replied. "I was just a little confused. It makes perfect sense now!"

"Look at what Uzume drew!" the red-haired girl exclaimed, and everyone immediately noticed that she was in "valley-girl" mode again, with her high-pitched voice.

As she brought up her drawing, everyone could see that what might have been a large, epic, and most definitely cool beast, was now a cute-looking, black dragon with a happy expression.

"Uh, wow..." Neptune said. "By the way, your voice..."

"Huh, oh!" Uzume began clearing her throat, her voice deepening again. "Yeah, um, guess I kind of messed."

"I like it!" Nepgear exclaimed in her cute, tiny way.

"Well, at least I got someone's approval. What did you draw, Nepsy?"

"Oh, I'm almost done." Neptune turned back to her picture, and added the finishing touches. Once she finished, she lifted her piece.

And to the surprise of everyone, it was a super impressive drawing, even though it was done with just crayons. It was a landscape piece, the edge of a grassy field overlooking a cliff, which in the background, there was an endless sky, with a few floating landmasses.

"Wow, Nepsy," Uzume replied.

"Big sis is amazing!" Nepgear added.

"Neptune, I didn't know you were such a good artist," her mother replied.

"Huh?" Neptune responded, a little surprised. "You really think so? I mean, I'm not that good."

"Sweetie, look it at what you've done. It's amazing! You're one of the best artists I've ever seen."

"Yeah, you're awesome big sis!" Nepgear added after her mother.

"You think so…" Neptune mused, looking at her art. "Ok, sure. I guess it's alright." She looked up, turning her sister. "Welp, you're the only one left. What did you draw, Nep Jr.?"

Nepgear got really excited at this, and lifted up her first picture. "Ta-da!"

It was a very simple, childish drawing of four figures, three with long purple hair, one of them shorter than the others, and another with her hair in a big strand, and then the last of the four had red hair in two strands.

"Wow. Is that us?" her big sister asked.

"Uh-huh. That is me, and big sis, and mommy, and miss Uzume!" the little girl said, pointing to each figure. "Everyone I love!"

"Ah, that's so sweet!"

"Yeah, that's so awesome!" Uzume added. "But... what about Umio?"

"Yes, I do seem to be missing from this drawing," the fish exclaimed.

"Oh, I drew a special one for you!" Nepgear explained, as she brought up her second piece.

And it was Umio, ...as a robot. Complete with laser eyes and loaded missile launchers, and even had some screw-tops and mechanical joints drawn in, though they were crude.

"O... kay… That's… interesting," Neptune replied.

"Oh goodness, Nepgear," Merci said.

"Well, this is certainly... unique," Umio added. "Not sure what to think about the idea of... being a robot."

"I think it's awesome!" Uzume said.

"Yeah!" Nepgear cheered. "I call it 'Metal Umio Ray 2.0'!"

"Really?" Neptune replied. "If it's '2.0', what happened to version one?"

"Uh... um... he..."

"I think that Nepgear was so excited to make the upgraded version, she accidentally skipped the original version," Merci explained.

"Yeah!" Nepgear agreed.

"I think it's lovely, by the way. And you certainly love your robots." Merci added as she tickled her youngest daughter, causing her to giggle.

Neptune and Uzume laughed, as Umio thoughtfully said, "well, when you say it that way, it certainly makes sense."

"Yeah, I think that's her way of saying she likes you," Uzume said between laughs.

"Yep, I'd say you're our 'Umio Ray'," Neptune added.

"Well, I suppose I am," Umio said, then adding to the laughter.

Soon, all five of them had joined in the group laughter, enjoying themselves, drowning out the muffled, unhappy groans of the imprisoned tome in Merci's desk drawer.

* * *

_**Author's Note, Jacob:** _ _Okay, so this note of mine extremely long, so hand on to something. Couldn't even fit in the normal notes section._

_So, I have a lot of things to say here. One, sorry this took so long. Again, coordinating with my co-writer was not easy. I'm not a mean person who wants to force priority on anyone (I mean, this is just fanfiction, plus I've been on the receiving end of that before, and it did go well for me), and Savannah had lots of personal things going on. And so did I from time to time. But I'll admit, I was getting frustrated with it, especially since it took so much longer to get a shorter chapter out, then a longer one. And again, I had to finish by myself._

_But enough of that. We'll leave that in the past. Let's talk about the chapter. There was something I was planning for us to write, but I wanted to save that for Chapter 5, and we needed something in between that and the last chapter (Chapter 3). So, we came up with this simple idea of everyone coloring together._

_What was fun about this chapter was figuring out what everyone would draw, and perhaps why? So let me explain each character's drawings._

_ Umio _ _: This is literally his EXE Skill for his playable DLC appearance for Megadimension VII. It's an entertaining Skill, and we couldn't come up with anything better, so this is what we went with._

_ Merci _ _: This one was just playing up Merci and her relationship with her daughters in a cute way. So, about the description of Mercury the planet. We looked it up online to get a better idea of what it looks like. We all know what it looks like, but the two of us wanted to get a better idea of what it looks like in pictures._

_And well, some showed it as a grey planet, that looked too close to the moon to me. I mean, Mercury is more scared than our cratered moon, but that's not easy to detail with crayons. Others showed it with lots of blue and yellow, and I couldn't tell you why. We only looked at images, not details about the planet itself. Though I should at some point. I grew up loving space and astronomy, due to my ex-astronaut grandpa, so it would be good to know._

_And one last bit on Merci's drawing, yeah, she drew Neptune as her younger self. It's because Merci still kind of sees Neptune as a teen, and is still getting used to her as an adult. And yes, in VII, during Ultra Neptune's backstory scenes, she did look exactly like Hyper Neptune's human form, even the same outfit, the developers basically using the same sprite's as goddess Neptune for younger human Neptune. I find this amusing, because while stuck in the Ultradimension, Hyper Neptune wore a different outfit than she does in the other games, though it's probably so she matched up with Ultradimension goddesses, which wear different outfits than their Hyperdimension counterparts._

_ Uzume _ _: This one was purely to be funny. Uzume would start by trying to draw something cool and epic, like her cool side, but ends up drawing something cute, like her girly side. We went with a dragon, going from a big epic one, to what I referred to as Toothless. Yes, everyone's favorite dragon from How to Train your Dragon. In fact, that's basically what she drew._

_ Neptune _ _: This one I want to go into further detail. If you've read the Hyperdimension manga, you would know that there was a chapter about the goddesses painting. That's what this Neptune's piece is a partial reference to. If you don't know, basically, Histoire made the goddesses paint something for an art showcase. But all of their art was of varying quality (I can't even DESCRIBE what Vert made), so Histoire realized that this was a mistake, and the goddesses the option to drop out._

_This is what Neptune did, claiming she wasn't that good anyways. We don't get to see what she drew, but we do see someone finding the painting she threw, and in the next panel, he is on the news, saying that they need to find the artist because the work was a masterpiece. In short, Neptune is apparently an AMAZING artist. And yeah, as an artist myself, I get where she is coming from. Lots of people say my art is great, but I feel that I am not as good as other people. It's the artist's curse to be hypercritical of your own work._

_Anyways, yes, we added this trait to Adult Neptune, too. And if you are wondering about what she drew, it's a landscape shot of the Superdimension from the original Hyperdimension game and Re;Birth 1. Yeah, those games don't actually take place in the Hyperdimension, despite the name. I figured Re;Birth 1 would've, but I guess not._

_ Nepgear _ _: So our little friend here drew two pieces. The first was a simple cute drawing of her family and friends, you know, like lots of kids draw. But that was simply supposed to be a lead into her actually drawing. As you know, Nepgear loves tech, and of course, we added that little Nepgear, too. But we've yet to mention if they share Nepgear's real love: Robots. And so here it is!_

_If you're wondering, "why Umio?", well in earlier chapters, we had little Nepgear call him "mister fishy". It was supposed to be just a cute little thing, but it stuck with me, and I decided to expand on it, giving Nepgear an interest in the character. Later, he'll probably become her father figure._

_As her drawing, the name is a reference to Metal Gear Solid (which in turn, is a play on Nepgear's name, because I love wordplays and puns), particularly on the Metal Gear Ray, which fits because it was an aquatic mech, and Umio is a fish. And as suggested in the chapter, the 2.0 was just to be cute._

_One final thing about the drawing they made. As I said, I myself am an artist. I draw digital-vector art, which I put up on DeviantArt under the name "Cobalt-Gemini". But I do draw sketches to work as a reference / guide to my pieces and with that, it is so tempting, to go out and by crayons and draw everything they made in this chapter. What do you think, should I? (If you want to see it, here's a link:[Cobalt-Gemini](https://www.deviantart.com/cobalt-gemini))_

_Also, I have a question I want to answer. Yeah, we have been getting reviews for this story on some of the sites we post this on, and I'd like to answer a good question someone asked. So here we go. Question from Gigarot here on Fanfic: "How about buying Gear some gear so she starts building her own tech and stops taking apart stuff?"_

_My answer: It's not that they wouldn't let her do, ever, just not now. Because she is five years old. While she has the innate skills, little Nepgear is not old to handle this stuff properly, and it can be dangerous when not handled properly. Merci's just being a responsible parent._

_Probably when this Nepgear is a bit older, probably in her pre-teens / early teens, when she is more responsible and careful, she would be allowed to mess with this stuff. In fact, it would be a good idea to do it then, because she has the inherent interest, and it could lead to a career when she grows up. In fact, I imagine we all think that normal Nepgear, our favorite Planeptune Candidate from the Hyperdimension, already has a hand in her nation's technological developments._

_With that said, going back to little Nepgear, this question did make us realize something. Little Nepgear is not allowed to mess with the tech in her home... yet we gave the kid her own screwdriver. We didn't realize this oversight at the time, and we really can't go back to write it out now. It would take too much effort to rewrite everything in a good, concise way, and it's just not worth it. So for now, we're going to leave that in the air, until we can find an explanation for this._

_As a final note, I've gone back to Chapter 1 to make some edits to the text hinting towards the two different Hyperdimension stories I'm planning on solo-writing, along with some fixes. If you don't remember, Big Nep was talking about dimensions she visited midway through the chapter, and these were personal hints to what I'm working on. In fact, I'm thinking of adding cameos of Big Nep and Uzume for these stories, just to connect everything together._

_**Author's Note, Savannah:** _ _As per our usual shenanigans, Jacob and I started this with a random discussion. Jacob changed some things around, as far as Uzume's dialogue, but didn't change much else, so it's pretty unadulterated. Also, apparently, the haptic feedback of a phone sounds like Minecraft dirt smacking...which I had fun teasing Jacob about._


End file.
